Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Dodge Poetry Festival

I was happy to be able to travel to New Jersey to attend the bi-annual Dodge Poetry Festival this last Saturday with my mother, artist Melabee M. Miller and some friends. Sure, there was the fire that cut the festival short that day (!!), but no one was hurt and there was much poetry to enjoy before that.

We both particularly enjoyed hearing Gregory Orr talk with Krista Tippett in a recorded (and to be aired!) On Being podcast. He spoke mainly about grief and poetry. At one point he said something to the effect of, "Poetry can be an ordering principle for crisis." I really love this idea of poetry framing and reframing crisis or grief. Later he performed some of his pieces with the Parkington Sisters, which just gave his work new life and interpretation. I purchased and read Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved on the train ride back and look forward to returning to the book, it was so moving.

There was more, of course, but I'll leave you with Gregory Orr for today:

To be alive! Not just the carcass
But the spark.
That's crudely put, but ...

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About Me

I am a published poet and freelance writer with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College in NY. I studied Italian language and literature at Smith College. My poetry chapbook, Unrest, is published by Finishing Line Press.
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I teach creative and composition writing online at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Northampton Community College, Thomas Edison State College and University of Maryland University College. I also work individually with adult students as a writing coach.